consumer behavior

The study of the buying units and the exchange process involved in acquiring, consuming, and disposing of goods, services, experiences, and ideas

Explain the logic of the centrality of the consumers

Consumers are the main focus of everything you do;
– Altruistic marketing—how can you influence the consumer?

Consumer Behavior Perspectives: Decision
Decision making perspective

high involvement; buying results from consumers perceiving that they have a problem/need/desire and then they move through a series of rational steps to solve the problem/ fulfill the need/desire

Generic Decision Model

when there is a problem, you go through a search, find alternatives;
-Problem/need recognition
– Search process—want people to think of your business when trying to solve a problem; ex. Wegmans is a go-to for food; curb side to-go for chain restaurants
– Alternative Evaluation—narrow service down to small subsets; proximity—options closer to each other; convenience; ex. Aurora street restaurants are more successful than Cayuga street;
– Choice—why do you choose one product over another?
– Post acquisition evaluation—why did you make certain decision?
-**INVOLVEMENT IS IMPORTANT**

Behavioral Influence Perspective

strong environmental forces propel consumers to make purchases without necessarily developing strong feelings for the product;
Ex. Donating at checkout at Wegs

Experiential Perspective

proposes that in some instances, buying results rom the consumer’s need for fun, to create fantasies, obtain emotions, and feelings; behavior results from this—ex. roller coasters desire to have fun; alcohol; traveling

Perception steps involved

The process through which consumers are exposed to information, attend to it, comprehend it, place it in memory, and retrieve it for later use.
1. Exposure Stage—sensory organs are activated and info processing can begin; visually seeing the ad
2. Attention Stage—consumers need to attend to the information presented before comprehending it
3. Comprehension Stage—consciously processing what you’re doing and seeing; organizing and interpreting information

The Perception Process:

– Need an environmental stimulus
– Attended stimulus
– Image on the retina
– Transduction– the visual messages that are sent and interpreted by the brain
– Neuroprocessing
– Perception—being consciously aware of the stimulus; interpreting it
– Recognition—meaning
– Action—your response to it

Gestalt

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; try to simplify/organize our world so it makes sense

Laws of Gestalt

– Law of similarity—items that are similar tend to be grouped together
– Law of praganc/simplicity—reality is organized or reduced to the simplest form possible
– Law of proximity—object near each other tend to be grouped together
– Law of continuity—lines are seen as following the smoothest paths
– Law of closure—objects seen close together are seen as a whole

Perceptual selection

Consumers select stimuli in their environment based on the interaction of expectations and motives with the stimulus itself

Sensation: websters law

as the intensity of the stimulus increases, the ability to detect a difference between the two levels of the stimulus decreases; adding on to price is not as big a deal when more money is being spent—becomes less meaningful

Just Meaningful Difference –
How much of a difference is necessary to change your behavior? The difference is meaningful and impacts your behavior/buying habits; this is what we want to do in marketing–have consumers react

JND

Just noticeable difference
The minimal amount of difference in intensity of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time; just notice, but doesn’t impact behavior
Ex.”New and improved” on a Tide bottle
Ex. You noticed gas is cheaper across the street but you’re at another gas station so you don’t change it; JMD would cause you to get gas across the street

Experimental—how you get the data to analyze; surveys, informational input from 5 senses, descriptive from observation

Short answer:
Explain the difference between JND & JMD and why it is significant for marketers. Be specific (i.e., use an example of your own), and assume that significance includes changes in both directions (for instance a price increase or decrease; a framing gain or loss etc).

Different for every single person; 10% off a product is noticeable but might not cause consumer to buy good; 70% off product is more meaningful, so more likely to cause a change

JMD—Just Meaningful Difference
How much of a difference is necessary to change your behavior? The difference is meaningful and impacts your behavior/buying habits; this is what we want to do in marketing–have consumers react

JND—Just noticeable difference
The minimal amount of difference in intensity of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time; just notice, but doesn’t impact behavior
Ex.”New and improved” on a Tide bottle
Ex. You noticed gas is cheaper across the street but you’re at another gas station so you don’t change it; JMD would cause you to get gas across the street